


Yo Ho, Hero!

by ChocolatteKitty_Kat



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken, Star Wars - All Media Types, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Found Family, Friendship, Magic, Pirates, Science Fiction, Space Pirates, cos i’m too lazy to come up with my own, i just wanted rito and hylians for alien races, it’s just star wars cos i’m using planets and alien races and ships and terminology, no jedi in this story, not because it has anything to do with star wars, not jedi tho, same with legend of zelda, space wizards, wizard davey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28790469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolatteKitty_Kat/pseuds/ChocolatteKitty_Kat
Summary: Think: Newsies characters, (grittier) Treasure Planet aesthetic, Star Wars planet-hopping, and an embarrassing amount of plot from the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything movie. Jack, Race, and Elmer are plucked out of their ordinary lives and thrust into a whole new world as unlikely heroes when Princess Katherine is captured by a wicked pirate. They join the crew of Prince Crutchie and his mage Davey to rescue Katherine and defeat the evil Captain Metalbeard.
Relationships: Albert DaSilva/Racetrack Higgins, Buttons/Elmer (Newsies), Crutchie & Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, David Jacobs & Original Female Character(s), Elmer (Newsies) & Original Female Character(s), Racetrack Higgins & Jack Kelly, Sarah Jacobs & Les Jacobs & Jack Kelly, Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	1. Prologue

“ _ Katherine _ !” Charlie screamed. His right hand was numb, possibly from the low-level buzz running through the bloodied vibro-shiv he held, and he reached his left out towards his sister as one of masked intruders that had breached the multiple shields around their ship grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her towards the airlock attached to the transparisteel outerlayer of their ship, the  _ Banner _ .

“Charlie, no!” Katherine cried, holding out her hand to wave him back.

Hands grabbed Charlie by the arms and pulled him backwards. He heard a muttered phrase in another language and one of the pirates lunging at them stopped and clutched at his head, screaming in agony as he fell to the deck.

“Get him out of here!” Spot—apparently the one dragging Charlie away from the action—shoved him towards Davey, the mage who had cast the spell that had the pirate rolling on the deck in agony, still clutching his head. Davey wrapped an arm around Charlie’s waist, pulling him towards the cabin at the back of the ship, hidden safely behind a heavy set of blast doors.

“No!” Charlie cried, fighting against Davey’s arm, but the mage was stronger than he looked and had a good grip on him. The last thing he saw as the blast doors closed in front of them was Katherine being dragged through the airlock…

.*.*.*.*.*.

Spot picked his way through the bodies strewn across the deck. Outside of the transparisteel dome and protective shield, stars swirled past in brilliant streaks of light, dimmed by the tinting of the dome. Davey was crouched over one of the bodies, a member of the crew; he rested a hand over the figure’s eyes, weighting them shut, before standing. “Captain,” he greeted Spot. “Do we have a heading to follow the men that took Katherine?”

“Yeah,” Spot said, “although I don’t know if that’s such a great idea. We lost a fight to them once; nothing has changed to indicate that we won’t lose again. We could lose  _ more _ people this time around.” He took a step closer to Davey, getting right up in the mage’s face. “If this thing even  _ looks _ like it  _ might _ go bad, I’m turning around and getting these people out of here. We’re not risking our lives for the princess.”

Davey drew himself up to his full height—an easy six inches over Spot—and looked down at the captain. “I understand, Captain. You have your duty—but I have mine: to protect Katherine and Charlie.”

Before Spot could respond, the ship lurched to a halt and the two of them went flying, landing in a jumbled pile of appendages on the deck. Above them, they heard a shout from Specs as he was thrown from the crow’s nest, but he managed to catch himself and extend his wings to glide down onto the deck. Spot extricated himself from Davey and leapt to his feet.

“JoJo! What was that!”

JoJo, just visible behind the control console of the ship, straightened up, reaching up to brush her fingers over a bleeding gash on her forehead. “Not sure, sir,” she called back. “I’d guess some sort of tractor beam or hyperspace disruptor.” She pointed towards the bow of the ship, where the twinkling canopy of distant space was visible through the transparisteel bubble over the deck. “Nothing’s visible, so it must be a cloaked ship or device.”

“Go babysit your prince,” Spot grabbed Davey by the collar, hauled him to his feet, and shoved him towards the aft cabin.

“No time for that!” Specs called. He flapped his wings and took off, speeding aft along the deck, swooping up and over JoJo and her console and swinging himself around to slam feet-first into the pirate looming up behind her.

Davey grabbed Spot and cast another spell. Spot found himself floating up and off the deck, and Davey flung him towards the brawl breaking out by the control panel. Spot cartwheeled through the air, fumbling for his blaster, and very abruptly found himself falling down onto several of the invaders as Davey ended the spell. He went into the fight kicking and biting. “JoJo, close the shield over their dock!”

“I’m trying!” JoJo yelled, feathers bristling. “Keep them off me so I can work, if you don’t mind!”

Spot grabbed the pirate heading towards JoJo and fired his blaster point-blank into the man’s head, shoving the body into another marauder heading towards them and knocking him to the ground. “JoJo!”

“ _ I’m trying! _ ”

The fight only lasted a few minutes, but it felt like hours. Suddenly, the  _ Banner _ lurched forward, sending them all down onto the deck again.

“JoJo?”

“Back on course, sir!”

Spot pistol-whipped the pirate beside him, trying to clamber to her feet, and she dropped back down to the deck, effectively lifeless.

“Captain!”

Spot was on his feet in an instant. Something about the urgency in Davey’s voice made him react instantaneously. He took the steps down to the lower deck in threes, his blood running cold at the sight there. Charlie lay on the deck, eyes closed and paper-white, blood pouring out through a massive wound running most of the length of his right leg. A burned crisp of a corpse lay a few feet away, on top of a scorch mark on the deck.

“Finch, Specs, med kit—now!” Spot barked over his shoulder, dropping to his knees next to Charlie. “What happened?”

“He had a stinger,” Davey snapped. “Ran it up the kid’s leg before I even saw him.”

Spot glanced at the body. “Well, he won’t be ripping anyone else up ever again.”

Specs landed next to Davey, med kit in his hands. Finch and Romeo were only seconds behind him. “What do we even do for that?” Romeo gaped at the wound on Charlie’s leg.

“Stop the bleeding and get him to a hospital on a decent-sized planet,” Spot muttered. “JoJo! Head for the nearest population center! Get us into the Mid Rim at least! Romeo, you and Skittery get up in the rigging. Keep a constant eye on the solar sails; make sure they’re at full furl and watch for any tears. We can’t afford to be slowed down. Not if we want the little prince to make it.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introduction to Jack, Race, and Elmer. Davey tells Spot more about Katherine and Charlie’s family.

Jack Kelly set the heavy crate he was carrying down onto the hoverloader cart at the base of the freighter’s ramp. He stepped off of the ramp and fished a grimy handkerchief out of his coverall pocket and used it to wipe the sweat from his brow. He squinted up at the smog-filled sky, searching for the glowing spots that would indicate where the suns were behind the clouds. He couldn’t find them. Race Higgins stepped off the ramp next to him, panting. He shook his head, flopping his ears, then shoved his sweaty hair back and out of his face.

“Glad that’s done,” Race said, tongue still lolling out from between sharp teeth. His nose twitched, and he turned as Elmer Kasprzak stepped down next to them. “You stink.”

Elmer glared at him. “Like you don’t,” he grumbled.

Race laughed, shoving his hair back again, as it had flopped forward into his face. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Gotta check with Denton first,” Jack reminded him, grabbing Race by the shoulders as he started to head for the lockers at the back of the dock and steering him towards their supervisor’s office. The rest of the crew that had been unloading the freighter fell in around them.

Denton, a tall, broad-shouldered human man with greying hair, stepped out of his office to greet them. “That last ship done?”

“Yes, sir!” Jack called back.

“Then you’re all clear for the day. See you in the morning.”

Jack, Elmer, and Race wandered towards their lockers together. They peeled off their coveralls and stuffed them into the laundry bin at the end of the lockers, swapped out heavy steel-toed magniboots for street shoes, and made their way out of the dock gate.

Proserpina was one of the busiest planets in the Mid Rim. It had a larger population than any other planet of its size class in the entire Mid Rim, as well as many larger planets both in the Mid Rim and the Core worlds. Often called the “Coruscant of the Mid Rim”, much of the planet—the inhabitable sections, at least, so everything that wasn’t near the poles—was covered in a single giant city, just like Coruscant. It had begun as a port between hyperspace lanes, and, as more high-traffic routes were established, only continued to grow thanks to its convenient location.

Jack had spent his whole life on Proserpina and its moons, Cyphus, Crorix, and Taothea—mostly the planet itself, although he’d been able to hitch a ride on a few supply runs to the moons over his life. Neither Race nor Elmer had been born on Proserpina, but both had come to the planet when they were still fairly young, and neither talked much about their homeworlds, and both considered Proserpina more home than anywhere else. Not that any of them were particularly happy there, but it was still home.

After work, as usual, they headed for a small cantina only a short walk away from the docks. This made it popular with visiting crews as well, meaning that the bar was always busy. When they walked through the doors, the place was packed. They had to squeeze through the crowd to get to the bar, where Albert, a young Felis who tended the bar, was flitting around making drinks. He grinned when he caught sight of them, nodding in greeting, his whiskers twitching.

Race took a seat at the bar, Jack and Elmer on either side of him. As soon as he was free, Albert stopped in front of them, leaning on the bar as he surveyed them. “You guys look exhausted,” he said, producing three plates of food and passing them out to the new arrivals, followed by three glasses of blue milk.

“Ugh, you’re the best,” Race groaned, pulling his plate closer to him. His ears perked up as the smell reached his sensitive nose and he grinned. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Albert winked. He grinned at Jack and Elmer, then flitted off down the bar to keep working.

Elmer rolled his eyes. He and Jack traded glances over Race’s head as the Canus dug into his food. “When are you going to suck it up and ask him out already?” Elmer asked, nudging Race’s arm as he turned to his own food.

“What?” Race asked. “Who?”

“Oh, I don’t know—Albert?” Elmer said.

“Why would I ask Albert out?” Race asked. “We live together. We’re friends.”

“Sure,” Jack rolled his eyes. “Friends.”

“And what do you mean by that?” Race demanded.

Jack started to answer, but stopped when Albert stopped in front of them again.

“Have you guys heard?” Albert asked, grinning and leaning in, whiskers twitching.

“Heard what?” Race asked, propping his chin in his hands and cocking his head to the side, eyes eager.

“About the pleasure cruiser that burst into the solar system last night and parked itself in the middle of the high dock.”

“Fancy,” Jack arched his eyebrows.

“I’ll say,” Albert snorted, miming wiping down the bartop as he chatted. “It’s a pretty legit pleasure cruiser, too. One of the ones made to look like an old sea ship, masts and solar sails, a transparisteel dome to lock in atmosphere—more fashion than function, really. Seems they were attacked by pirates in the outer rim and got beat pretty bad. Lost some crew, needed the hospital here for some others.”

“What pirates?” Elmer asked.

“Who knows,” Albert shrugged. “There’s so many crews out there. It was stupid of them to go past the Mid Rim—if even that far—in a ship so poorly protected and without proper defenses. They were basically sitting ducks. They’re lucky any of them got away.”

.*.*.*.*.*.

Davey stood, arms crossed, in front of a large transparisteel window. On the other side, Charlie’s body floated in a blue-tinted bacta tank, eyes closed behind the oxygen mask over the lower portion of his face. He was in a medically-induced coma while his body repaired itself—as much as it could—with the aid of the bacta. Once the worst of his wounds were healed, in a few days’ time, he would be removed from the tank and would undergo cybernetics surgery to replace the leg that had been amputated after the attack a few days earlier.

They had been lucky to find such a good hospital so close, but, even at the best speed JoJo and Skittery could coax from the engines, it had taken them almost twenty-four hours to reach Proserpina, and by that time it had been too late to save the boy’s leg, even with the help of Davey’s magic. In fact, the magic was probably the only thing that had kept Charlie alive long enough to reach the planet.

Spot stepped up next to Davey, his oversized ears low on the sides of his head, tail twitching under his long coat. He stuffed his paws into his pockets and hunched his shoulders up as he stared at the boy in the tank. “How is he?”

“He’ll live,” said Davey. “They had to take the leg, but he’ll live. And the cybernetics program here is fairly good, so the implant will be high quality.”

Spot nodded. “Poor kid.”

Davey sighed. “Yeah. But he’s strong. He’ll pull through. He’ll need all the help he can get, though.”

Spot nodded again.

“How are the repairs going on the ship?”

“Could be worse,” Spot said. “JoJo and Skittery did some research before hiring mechanics to help them. It’s not the fastest—and it won’t be the cheapest—but they assure me that it will be worth it. So far they’ve patched the holes in the hull. They’re moving on to reinforcing the bubble next. Romeo, Finch, and Specs have been working on the solar sails, and they’re making good progress.”

Davey nodded. “Have you been able to reach their father?”

“No, sir. They say he’s in the Hapes Consortium and unreachable.”

Davey muttered a curse word under his breath. “Of course. Why bother about your children when you have business to attend to?”

Spot bit his lip for a moment before moving to the next topic: “We’ve figured out who it was who attacked us.”

“Metalbeard?” Davey said.

“Yes, sir.”

“I figured as much.”

“We’re lucky that any of us made it out of there alive,” said Spot. “You know his reputation as well as I do.”

“Charlie and Katherine are the ones who saved us there,” Davey murmured.

“Sir?”

“You don’t know?” Davey turned to Spot. “Metalbeard—as he’s known now, not that he always has been—is their uncle. Undoubtedly, he’s trying to get to their father. That’s why his men took Katherine. Hurting Charlie was almost certainly an accident, and one that the few who escaped likely paid dearly for.”

“I had no idea,” Spot murmured.

“Metalbeard was angry when his brother inherited the full share of their father’s business. Nevermind that there’s no way in the galaxy Metalbeard would have been fit to run it—he’s always been into the more  _ questionable _ side of business. He likely would have run it into the ground trying to get rich quick, and poured all of his profits into spice running, gambling—that sort of thing. When his brother cut him off, when Katherine and Charlie were children, he spiralled. Ran off to the Outer Rim. Everyone thought he was dead for years.

“About a decade later, our ships in the Outer Rim started to come under attack. Around the same time, we heard the first rumors of the pirate called ‘Metalbeard’. I joined one of the runs. That’s how I was able to confirm his identity. The attacks died off a few months later as he spread further out into the Outer Rim. The last assault can only have been him beginning to make another move for his father’s company. Or maybe just directly against his brother—who knows.”

Spot arched his eyebrows. “That’s… Wow. I never knew.”

“They don’t exactly  _ advertise _ the relationship. I don’t even know if Charlie and Katherine know about it.”

Spot sighed and shifted his weight. “Would’ve been a nice thing to know before I let JoJo plot our course through the Outer Rim.”

“I never thought he’d go after them. Previously, ships carrying one or both of them have been spared from Metalbeard’s attacks. I have no idea what’s changed…”


	3. Chapter 2

“Davey! I won’t tell you again. We’re going after her.”

Davey pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Charlie, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you: it’s just not safe. We don’t have the manpower, the firepower, the speed— _ anything _ to stand up to Metalbeard and his men. All we can do is report Katherine’s absence to the authorities and continue our attempts to get in touch with your father.”

Charlie glared at Davey. He was sitting on the edge of his clinic bed, feet resting on the floor. He was still being treated—mostly bacta to encourage healing around his new implant and antibiotics to discourage infections and cybernetics rejection—and undergoing physical therapy to get used to using the limb, but was ready to leap out of bed and go after his sister. Not that they could even if they wanted to; JoJo, Skittery, and their hired mechanics were still working on the extensive repairs the ship needed after the battle. “I won’t sit around and do nothing while my sister is in the hands of that  _ pirate _ .”

“You’re not doing nothing; you’re healing,” Davey said. “Don’t you think that’s what Katherine would want?”

Charlie fumbled for a response. “Well, she wouldn’t want to stay there for too long. As soon as I’m released and the ship is repaired, we  _ will _ be going after her.”

Davey hesitated. “When you’ve recovered, we’ll revisit the subject.”

“That’s your way of saying ‘no’, isn’t it?” Charlie said wryly.

Davey chuckled. “It’s not like we even know where she is, Charlie. We can’t just roam the whole of the Outer Rim searching for a secret pirate base.”

“Can’t you do anything?” Charlie pleaded. “With your magic? Can’t you find her with that?”

“No,” said Davey. “That’s not the sort of magic I have. My mentor might have been able to… but she’s long gone. I don’t know anyone with that sort of magic, much less the raw power you’d need for it.”

“Isn’t there  _ anything _ you can do?” Charlie pleaded.

“Well…” Davey mused. “There might be one spell…”

.*.*.*.*.*.

Jack grabbed Elmer and pulled him out of the way of a slow-moving airspeeder trying to make it’s way along the street. “Be careful, would you?” he scolded, giving the boy a little shake by the scruff of his neck before letting go.

“Sorry,” Elmer said sheepishly. “That thing came out of nowhere, though!”

“It’s… it’s literally moving slower than you are,” said Jack, incredulous. “How did you not see it coming?”

“I just didn’t,” Elmer shrugged.

Jack felt a shiver go down his spine and glanced over his shoulder. On the other side of the street, a tall man with dark hair, wearing a fancy dark cloak, was standing still in the midst of the people flowing around him, staring at Elmer and Jack as they headed for the dock. “Who the heck is that guy?” Jack grumbled, shooting his best glare at the stranger. A lumbering wookiee passed between them, and, when the air was clear, the stranger had vanished.

“Who?” asked Elmer.

“Nothing,” Jack rolled his shoulder, trying to shake off his lingering unease. “My imagination.”

.*.*.*.*.*.

The cantina was always less busy on the weekends. Most freighters made their runs, and therefore stopovers on Proserpina, during the week as much as possible, and that meant that the majority of the cantina’s customers were absent on the off days. Jack and the others didn’t complain about this too much; it let them sit and heckle Albert in relative peace, with only the few local regulars around to hear it.

Today was different, though. Jack and Race had picked up an extra shift at the dock, and agreed to meet Elmer for lunch at the cantina afterwards. When they walked in, Jack could have sworn that the tall, dark-haired, cloaked stranger was seated in a shadowy corner at the back of the bar.

“Who  _ is _ that guy?” Jack whispered, nudging Race with his elbow and nodding at the stranger.

Race followed his gaze, brow furrowing at sight of the stranger. “No idea. I think I’ve seen him around the past few days, though. Maybe he just moved here or something. We should go say hi and make him feel welc”—

“Absolutely not,” Jack grabbed him by the arm and steered him towards Elmer and Albert at the bar. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to talk to strangers?”

“No, not really.”

“Hey,” Elmer grinned at them.

“Hey,” said Jack, planting Race on a stool and taking a seat next to him. “Al, who’s the new guy?”

“Not sure,” Albert shrugged, pouring him a glass of spotchka. “I’ve seen him around a few times over the past few days. Today’s the first time he’s ordered anything, though.”

“Maybe he doesn’t like crowds,” Elmer suggested. “It can get pretty packed in here during the week.”

“That’s true,” Race nodded.

“I don’t care; he’s creepy,” Jack hunched his shoulders up and leaned forward, unconsciously making himself as small as possible against the bar. He felt like someone was staring holes into his back, and didn’t like the sensation. He was half-tempted to get up and move seats, just to be out of the stranger’s direct line of sight, or to be able to keep the man in his own peripheral, but opted to just squirm uncomfortably on his stool.

The three of them chattered together for a while, Albert coming and going between serving other customers, but Jack couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Every time he glanced over his shoulder, the stranger was still there, sitting in the shadows and watching from under his deep hood. When Jack, Race, and Elmer finally said their goodbyes to Albert and got up to leave, however, the stranger’s table was empty.

Jack shook off the odd feeling that had plagued him the whole afternoon.  _ I must be imagining things _ , he told himself firmly.  _ No need to be so paranoid, Jack. What would someone like that want with you, anyways? _

Outside, the smell of oil and ship’s exhaust fumes assaulted their noses, in sharp opposition to the scents of beer and greasy food that had filled the cantina. Race physically recoiled, bringing his hand up to cover his nose in the hopes of blocking out some of the harsh smells. “Ugh,” he groaned. “I hate it here.”

“If I could live anywhere in the galaxy, it would be somewhere with lots of fresh air,” Elmer sighed.

Jack smiled to himself. “Keep your head out of the clouds. You have to focus on where you are if you ever want to get where you’re going. Work hard enough, and you’ll be able to afford to get offworld someday.” He stared longingly up at the sky, the first of the three moons just beginning to appear off at the horizon. “Offworld further than Crorix, anyways,” he murmured.

The three of them lived fairly near each other, only a few streets apart. Elmer and his partner had a tiny apartment at the top of a block of flats just before the tunnels into the city’s underlevels. Race and Albert lived just inside the underlevel, while Jack lived a few streets down the tunnel. The only one of them who had actually grown up on Proserpina, he didn’t mind the underlevels as much as Race and Elmer, although he did dream of someday living on a planet where he could see the sky out his window.

The streets weren’t busy; between the lack of visiting ships to provide their crews to fill them and the fact that most locals were either already in the cantinas and taverns for their own revels or settled in for a comfortable night at home after a long work week, there were few other pedestrians around them. They were just reaching the point where Elmer would split off to head home and Jack and Race would enter the tunnel to their level when, quite suddenly, the world around them seemed to… slow.

The other pedestrians began moving more and more slowly, as though they were walking through honey—in fact, the air around them even took on a golden sheen beyond just the warm glow of the sunset. The dull roar of airbusses moving between the upper levels faded away, deepening in pitch as the vibrations slowed.

“Jack?” Elmer said softly, backing towards his friends. “Race?”

“What’s going on?” Race asked.

“No idea,” Jack murmured.

“Why aren’t we slowing too?” Elmer asked, looking down at his hands.

“Because you’re in a time bubble,” came a voice from behind them.

The trio whipped around to find the hooded stranger standing behind them. He lifted his hood and dropped it down to rest against his back, revealing a head of dark, wavy hair and a grim smile. “Hello. My name is David. I’m a professional mage.”

“Mage?” Race snorted. “No-one believes in magic.”

“Uh, Race…” Jack gestured vaguely at the slowed-down, honey-colored world around them. “I think we can guess that he’s probably telling the truth there.”

“Fair enough,” Race muttered.

“What do you want with us?” Elmer asked.

“Ah, right,” David nodded. He fished in his pocket and produced a small sphere of glowing purple light. “I don’t suppose any of you know what this is?”

“Magic?” Race guessed.

“Well, yes,” David said. “More specifically, it’s a spell called ‘In Time of Need’. Its goal is to find the tools to complete some sort of seemingly-impossible task.”

“What does that have to do with us?” Jack asked.

“If you would let me  _ finish _ instead of interrupting, I’d explain,” David retorted. “I cast this spell three days ago. It took me a while to narrow down what exactly it was drawing me towards, but I finally came to the conclusion that it has, for some reason, chosen the three of you.”

“Are you calling us tools?” Race asked, eyes narrowed.

“Wh—no? At least, that wasn’t my intention. I apologize if my phrasing indicated otherwise.” David sighed and released the ball of light. It floated up and away from him, towards the three others. It paused for a moment to hover in front of each of them in turn, then suddenly shot off to circle them a few times before zooming back towards David, vanishing into his chest just over his heart. “That settles it,” he sniffed, brushing his hands off. “Apparently, the three of you are the only people who can help us.”

“Help  _ who _ with  _ what _ exactly?” Jack asked.


	4. Chapter Three

“I’m home!” Jack called as he stepped through the door, bone weary after his and his friend’s conversation with the mysterious mage.

“Jack!”

Jack grinned and leaned down to catch the child racing towards him. “Hey, Les.”

Les’s older sister, Sarah, looked up from the datapad she was studying at the table and smiled briefly at Jack. “Welcome home.”

“Thanks,” Jack said.

Sarah’s brow furrowed. “Les, go get ready for bed.”

“But I want to play with Jack!”

“Maybe tomorrow. It’s time for bed now.”

Les sighed. Jack set him down and he ran off for the ‘fresher cabinet at the back of the flat. Sarah set her datapad down and looked expectantly at Jack. “What is it?”

Jack sighed and sank down into the chair across from her. Sarah was a few years younger than him, but was one of his oldest friends. Their fathers had worked together as crew on a supply ship that ran between Proserpina and settlements on the three moons, and Jack had spent most of his days in Sarah’s family’s home, in the care of her mother while their fathers were offworld. He had been with them, and baby Les, when a reactor leak had led to the supply ship blowing up while on Taothea—taking half of the settlement with it. Sarah’s mother had died a few years later, and Jack had taken responsibility of Sarah and Les from that point on.

“Jack, come on; what happened?” Sarah pressed, reaching across the table to take his hand.

“Sarah, do you believe in magic?” Jack said finally.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sarah asked.

“I mean… Well, your mom used to tell us stories about space mages when we were kids. And even in school we learned about how they used to act as the protectors of the galaxy, and stuff like that. But they died out in some of the old wars. Do you remember?”

“Sure,” Sarah shrugged. “Everyone’s heard the fairy tales. But that’s all they are—stories.”

“I’m not so sure,” Jack sighed. “Race and Elmer and I met this guy on our way home tonight. He… Well, he stopped time. Well, okay, technically he didn’t stop it completely, but he slowed it down a  _ lot _ .”

Sarah arched an eyebrow. “Really.”

“Look, I know it sounds crazy. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes. But Race and Elmer were there too—they experienced it right alongside me.”

“Are you sure you just didn’t drink too much Corellian firewhiskey at the cantina?” Sarah quipped.

“No; I had one glass of spotchka when I got there. We weren’t drunk.”

“Jack, this is insane. People can’t just stop time, or slow it down, or whatever.”

“That’s what I thought!” said Jack. “But then we met this guy and I guess now I’ve changed my stance on magic.”

“What did this ‘guy’ want with the three of you anyways?” Sarah asked.

Jack paused. He didn’t think that Sarah would believe him if he told her the whole story David had told them…

_ “I work for a very powerful man in the Core worlds,” David explained. “Most of what I do nowadays is keep an eye on his kids for him. He wants to keep them safe, and I’m the best way for him to do that. Except… recently, I failed. His daughter was captured by pirates, and his son was gravely injured. We barely got him to Proserpina in time to save his life. Now I’m left with the task of rescuing the girl, but we lost several members of our crew in the battles with the pirates.” _

__ _ “What does that have to do with us?” Race asked. _

__ _ “Again with the interrupting!” David sighed. “I cast the spell ‘In Time of Need’ in the hopes that it would lead me to the best people to fill in the crew in order to also help us accomplish our mission. And, since it led me to the three of you… I guess you’re it.” _

“He offered us jobs,” said Jack finally. “On his ship. He said they’re down some crew, and he offered to hire us.”

“And he needed magic for that… why exactly?”

“He said he used a spell to find the people who would be the best fit for the crew,” said Jack.

“So that’s you, Elmer and Race?”

“Apparently,” Jack shrugged.

“Are you going to take the job?”

Jack paused for a moment. “I want to. This could be my chance, Sarah. My chance to get off Proserpina for good—to get you and Les out of here. And it’s not like it could be worse than working on the docks.”

Sarah shrugged. “It’s your choice. Don’t stay here just for us.”

“I have to get off this planet, Sarah,” Jack sighed. “I can’t die here like my dad. I want to go somewhere with wide open skies, that doesn’t smell like exhaust fumes. Maybe see grass and real plants that live in the ground, not in pots and window boxes and hydroponics systems. Clouds that aren’t just straight-up pollution.”

Sarah smiled fondly. “Sounds like a nice place.”

“I’ll take you there someday,” Jack promised. “You  _ and _ Les.”

“Sure,” she said. She stood up from the table. “When do you leave?”

“He said to meet us at his ship in a week. They’re doing maintenance and repairs. I have that long to make up my mind.”

“Sounds like you already have,” Sarah said.

Jack sighed. “Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll see where I’m at in a week.”

.*.*.*.*.*.

“Well?” Spot asked, stepping out from the shadows around the gangplank of the  _ Banner _ .

“Well?” Davey repeated, stopping at the foot of the gangplank. He did his best to school his features into neutrality, unwilling to admit how badly Spot had scared him.

“Did your spell work?” Spot asked, crossing his arms. He moved to stand close to Davey, glaring up at the taller man.

“As far as I can tell,” Davey replied, drawing himself up to his full height. “Do you doubt my abilities,  _ Captain _ ?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Spot spat. “Why should I trust that your magic can find better people for my crew than I can from interviewing free deckhands around the docks? I could find the people with the best skills to compliment the crew we still have, and to buffer our ranks for our next run-in with those pirates—because I guarantee that we’ll be meeting them again, if we’re to go after Katherine.”

Davey sighed. “Captain Conlon, what I do is magic. Not science. I told you about the spell I was planning to cast, and what it does. It will find us exactly what we need to accomplish our goals, whether that is personnel, tools, et cetera. As a matter of fact, it  _ did _ find us personnel—three young men who I firmly believe will make excellent additions to our crew.”

He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. “But, I have to admit… This spell isn’t  _ exactly _ in my realm of expertise.”

Spot arched an eyebrow. “Care to elaborate on that?” he snapped.

“I’m an evocation wizard, primarily,” Davey explained. “That means that the majority of my spells… create something. Fire, air currents, acid—I mean, you’ve seen me in a fight. Evocation wizards are good for battle, but not so much for support. The spell I cast was a divination spell. Divination wizards see the future, read minds, see through invisibility… That sort of things.” He smiled fondly. “My mentor was a divination wizard. She was… very powerful. There were even rumors that she could manipulate time and space itself, before she disappeared. She… she would have known exactly what to do right now. Anyways, divination isn’t really my strong suit. So, while I’m sure the people I’ve found will help us… I can’t be exactly sure how, or if they’re the  _ absolute _ best solution. I just have to trust that the spell has done its job.”

Spot grunted and shoved his hands into his pockets. He pushed past Davey and headed up the gangplank. “Guess we’d better hope that you’re as good a wizard as everyone seems to think you are.”

Davey sighed again and followed Spot up the ramp. “Guess we’d better,” he muttered.


	5. Chapter 5

“When will you be back?”

Jack turned around and looked down at the round face staring earnestly up at him. He smiled and reached down, lifting Les up and setting the boy on the bed beside him while he finished packing. “As soon as I can, I promise,” he said. “This is a really good job for me. It’ll be good for all of us. With the money I make, I’ll be able to afford to move all of us off of Proserpina. Wouldn’t you like to live on a planet with  _ grass _ and  _ oceans _ ? Trees? Something besides just buildings and smog? Somewhere we wouldn’t have to live underneath other people like we do here?”

Les cocked his head to the side, thinking. “Yeah, that does sound pretty nice.”

In the doorway, Sarah crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway. “Just promise that you’ll be careful. And that you’ll come back.”

“Don’t worry,” Jack grinned, “I won’t bail on you guys. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Sarah smiled back. “Come on, Les. Let’s let Jack finish up. It’s almost time to say goodbye.”

When Jack had finished packing, he hefted his rucksack up and over his shoulder, letting out a soft  _ oof _ as the heavy pack hit his back. He walked out into the apartment and said his goodbyes to a stern-faced Sarah and teary-eyed Les. They had agreed that it would be better to say their goodbyes in private, rather than walking to the transport station with Jack. It was hard to leave—Sarah and Les were the closest he had to family, after all, and he hadn’t been away from them for more than a day or two since their parents had died. The thought of leaving for some indeterminate length of time was… harder than hard. But he firmly believed that this was his best option, and the best option for Sarah and Les, so, while it seemed impossible to leave them behind, he was determined to make the best of it.

After leaving home, he headed for Race and Albert’s little flat, by the tunnel entrance. The two were waiting outside of their building. Albert’s ears were flat against his head, but he smiled at Jack as he approached. “So, you’re really going, aren’t you?” he said.

“Seems like,” Race gave him an uncertain grin. “See you soon.”

“Yeah,” Albert’s smile softened and his ears relaxed as he looked over at Race. “Stay safe.”

“You too,” Race reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “That bar can get pretty rough some nights, and you won’t have us to keep an eye on you.”

Albert laughed. “Yeah.  _ You _ keep an eye on  _ me _ .”

“Who else do you think keeps the goons off your back when fights break out?” Race teased.

“Uh, the bouncers?” said Albert.

“Sure,” Race rolled his eyes and pulled Albert in for a brief hug. “I’ll call when I can.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Albert. He looked over Race’s shoulder and smiled at Jack. “Take care of each other? Both of you, and Elmer too.”

“We will,” Jack promised.

Race gave Albert a final whack on the shoulder—to which the Felis responded with a punch to the ribs, which Race narrowly dodged—before hefting up his bag and moving towards Jack. They waved back at Albert before heading into the tunnel to the docks.

“We’re going to be late,” Race grumbled, checking the chronometer on his wrist.

“We’ll be fine.”

“We’ll be  _ late _ .”

“We’ll be fine, Racer. Don’t worry.”

The streets and walkways leading to the tunnel were as busy as ever, packed with people going about their own lives. Normally, Jack didn’t pay that much attention, but today… It seemed strange that so many people—faces he knew by proximity, from passing them every day for years now—were just going about their daily lives, while his entire world was about to take the biggest shift since the death of his father.

Breaking out from the tunnel, not much changed. The walkways and streets were just as crowded as they had been inside. The towering buildings, transports incoming freighters and ships shadowed the people flowing along just like the upper levels and tunnels had, and clouds and smog blocked out the sunlight. Jack felt excitement swell up inside of him. The mysterious mage from the week before had told them to meet him at a dock on the topmost level of Proserpina’s city—several levels above anywhere the boys had ever had cause to go before. Jack was ecstatic at the thought of seeing the sky, much less breaking atmosphere. The last time he’d left the planet’s surface had been on a moon supply run with his and Sarah’s fathers, as a child. Since then, he’d hardly even gotten glimpses of the sky, and those mostly accompanied the largest freighters as they broke through the smog and cloud covers while entering or leaving atmosphere. The thought of actually  _ seeing _ the sky and the stars filled Jack with an unbridled joy that threatened to leap out of his chest.

Elmer met them where the walkway branched, one path leading towards the docks, the other towards the transports to the upper levels. He fell in beside the others, unnaturally quiet.

“How’s Buttons?” Race asked.

“Fine,” Elmer sighed. “Not happy. They want me to stay. They said the galaxy’s too big a place for folks as little as us. That we won’t be able to make any more of a difference there rather than here, so I—we—should just stay here, where we have friends.”

“If everyone believed they were too small to make a difference, no-one would ever step up to do anything. No-one would ever have left their planet’s surface in the first place, and we’d never have seen the stars.” Jack sighed and adjusted his rucksack straps on his shoulders. “The galaxy would be a much different place if that were the case.”

Race and Elmer traded a glance and shrugged. Race checked his chronometer again. “Let’s pick up the pace, boys,” he sang out, quickening his own step and pulling ahead of the others. “It won’t do to be late on our first day at a new job!”


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a question recently asking if there was a list of everyone’s species, and I’m here to inform you that there is! If you head to my tumblr (@starship-squidlet, which you should be able to reach by going to starship-squidlet.tumblr.com) and look at the masterlist (pinned post), scroll through the Newsies links until you find the one for Yo Ho, Hero! That will take you to the series masterlist, and towards the bottom of that post you’ll find a list of all major characters and their species. Sorry that it’s so convoluted! In the future, I may type up a new list and include it in another chapter, but for now, the one on tumblr will have to do! Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions or issues finding the list!!!

Jack felt his breath catch in the back of his throat as he took in the ship in front of them. The  _ Banner _ ’s mast soared up into the hazy sky, her solar sails bundled in their furled positions. He could see a pair of bird-like people—Rito, if he had to guess, based on what he could see of their heads and wings—fluttering around between masts, checking the sails. A few other figures were visible on the deck of the ship, heads bobbing in and out of view as they moved around the deck.

“Wow,” Elmer breathed the word out beside him. Jack glanced over and grinned at the sight of the younger boy’s wide eyes and dropped jaw. “She’s beautiful.”

“Sure is,” Race let out a low whistle. “Think she flies as smooth as she looks?”

“For as fancy as she is, she’d better,” Jack laughed. “Come on, or we really  _ will _ be late.” He grabbed the others by their collars and gave them a gentle shove towards the ship.

At the foot of the gangplank, they were met by a short, stocky Canus with dark brown and grey fur, and oversized ears on either side of his head, slightly lower than what looked to be their normal position. He wrinkled his nose and glared at the three of them. “You must be Davey’s recruits.”

Jack, Race, and Elmer exchanged glances. “Uh… We were hired by a man named David, yeah,” said Jack finally. “A week ago, down on the cargo docks.”

The Canus sighed and straightened up. “I’m the captain of the  _ Banner _ , Spot Conlon. Who are you?”

“Jack Kelly, Race Higgins, Elmer Kasprzak,” Jack pointed at each of them in turn as he said their names.

“Any of you have experience working on a ship?” Spot asked, looking them up and down.

“My dad taught me how to fly a freighter when I was younger,” said Jack. “He used to take me with him on supply runs to the moons.”

“Otherwise, nope,” said Race.

“Great,” Spot sighed. “Well, come on. It’s almost time to cast off.” He turned around and headed up the ramp. The boys exchanged another glance, then followed the captain. On deck, Spot called out to the rest of the crew: “Alright, everyone! Fall in!”

In moments, the rest of the crew was lined up in front of them. Jack had been right—the two flyers were Rito, one with iridescent black feathers, with white rings around his eyes, and one with yellow, brown, and white. There was a Verpine, vaguely insectoid and very twitchy, and a small, wiry man that looked half-Felis, half-something more human. The final member of the crew, and the last to fall in line with the others, was a woman with lavender skin and a crest of gradient rainbow feathers running from the bridge of her nose to vanish behind her head, and more bands of feathers on her wrists and up her arms until they disappeared under her sleeves. She cocked her head and winked at Jack when she caught him staring at her, grinning openly when he flushed.

“JoJo,” Spot cautioned. “Everyone, these are our new recruits, Jack, Race, and Elmer.” He turned to face the trio. “This is the rest of the crew. JoJo de la Guerra”—the purple-skinned woman stepped forward and nodded, her feathers ruffling—“navigation. Romeo”—the half-Felis gave them a wave—“general crew. Specs”—the black-feathered Rito nodded—“lookout. Finch”—the yellow-feathered Rito bowed politely—“general crew. And Skittery”—the Verpine chittered faintly—“mechanic and general crew. They’ll teach you the ropes—literally, and figuratively.” He gestured up at two more figures, on an upper deck, staring down at them. “You three have met Davey already, and the kid with him is Charlie. Charlie’s our boss. We all work for him. Davey too. But he’s nice enough. Just… don’t ask about the leg.” Introductions finished, Spot turned on his heel and headed for the upper deck. JoJo smiled brightly at the new arrivals, then followed along after the captain.

The other members of the crew closed in around their new shipmates, grinning broadly.

“Well, well, well,” Romeo, the shortest among the crew by a full head, crossed his arms and stepped forward to look up at the others. He bared his teeth in something between a smile and a snarl—even though he was clearly only half Felis, and therefore had far more humanoid features than full-blooded Feli, like Albert, his teeth were long, sharp, and far more cat-like than any human’s—as he looked up at them. “So… you guys ever been aboard a sky-sailer before?”

“Well, that certainly seems to be the question of the day,” Race retorted.

“The answer is ‘no’,” said Jack before Race and Romeo could devolve into an argument. “None of us have ever crewed a starship before, except for when I used to fly moon supply runs with my father when I was a kid. But we all have a lot of experience on cargo docks.”

Finch and Specs traded glances and rolled their eyes so far back into their heads that they almost disappeared. “Working cargo docks is  _ nothing _ like working a ship,” Finch said.

Skittery chittered, a series of clicking noises that ended in what sounded vaguely like a laugh.

Specs clicked his beak in agreement, then turned to the others. “He says that if you think it’ll be that easy, you’re in for a rude awakening.”

“Well, I’m sure it can’t be more  _ physically _ demanding than working on a dock,” Jack retorted. “So why don’t you just suck it up and show us what to do so we can all figure out how this is going to work?”

.*.*.*.*.*.

An hour later, they were all in position to cast off. Jack stood by the main mooring line anchoring the ship to the dock. Romeo, Specs, Finch, and Skittery were all up in the rigging, while JoJo stood at the ship’s wheel next to Spot. Davey and Charlie were nowhere to be seen—Jack thought he had seen them heading into the cabin under the upper deck a little while earlier—and Race and Elmer had also been positioned around the ship, Race at the secondary mooring line, and Elmer precariously in the crow’s nest.

Jack felt the engines roar to life under his feet, and the joy swelled back up in his chest again. His heart began to pound, and he couldn’t keep a grin off of his face. The ship rose slightly with the soft roar of the engines, and Jack adjusted his grip on the mooring line, waiting for Spot’s signal.

It wasn’t long in coming. After a moment and a nod from JoJo, who was watching monitors and dials on the control panel beside her, Spot stepped forward to the railing in front of the wheel. “Gentlemen! Cast us off!”

As they had been instructed by Specs and Finch, Jack and Race untied the lines from where they were fastened and raced for the gangplank, clattering up it and onto the deck. Once there, Jack hit the control to pull back the gangplank, and they raced towards where the mooring lines were fastened to the ship to haul them onto the deck and coil them neatly out of the way.

The hoverfield under the ship was slowly retracted, allowing the ship to begin to lift on its own power, and Jack felt his heart lift with it. A breeze fluttered across the desk, blowing his hair back and out of his face. His grin broadened as they rose, lifting away from the Proserpina space decks. He stared expectantly up at the clouds, hardly even noticing as the transparisteel canopy began to rise from the sides of the ship to envelop them in a bubble. With another set of gentle whirring, the life support system kicked in, providing a new gentle breeze (of significantly fresher air) that swirled around the deck.

“All clear, Captain!” JoJo’s call snapped Jack’s attention back to the deck of the ship.

“Altitude?” Spot half-turned towards her to ask the question.

“Ten thousand meters and climbing,” JoJo responded.

_ That high already? _ Jack gaped. He peered over the edge of the railing—as much as he could with the transparisteel bubble in place—and realized that they were, in fact, far higher up from the city and the planet’s surface than he had guessed. In fact, the city was hardly visible beneath them with the heavy cloud cover that had begun to envelop the ship.

“Unfurl the main sail!” Spot called. Jack looked up and watched as Specs and Finch fluttered into motion, releasing the sail from the arm so that it tumbled into place. The solar cells began to glow dully, even with the general lack of UV light in the clouds. They brightened as the ship continued to rise, soaking in more and more sunlight. “Top sail!” Spot called. Skittery and Romeo unfurled the sail, then clambered down the rigging to the deck as Finch and Specs soared to the other arm to prepare to release the mainsail on the fore-mast on Spot’s cue.

As they lifted out of the clouds, Jack had to shield his eyes as the light of the sun hit them before the transparisteel could tint to compensate. When he moved his hand again, he was surrounded by the starfield of outer space. The moons of Proserpina were visible in the distance, making their way around the planet. He could glimmer of the next planet in the solar system far off in the starfield, almost obscured by the bulk of the star—not that he looked directly at  _ that _ ; he knew better. Spot called out again, and Finch and Specs unfurled the final sail. All of the solar cells were glowing brightly at this point, the sails billowing without wind as the cells flexed towards the light.

The whir of the engines grew louder as the maneuvering thrusters kicked in, guiding them away from the planet. Sublight engines came next, and the  _ Banner _ was on her way out of the system.


	7. Chapter 7

“So, where to first?” Spot asked.

“I’m not sure,” Davey sighed. He and Charlie had joined the crew on the deck once they had left Proserpina’s atmosphere, and now stood with JoJo and Spot near the ship’s wheel and controls, watching the crew flit about the deck. Finch seemed to be either instructing or taunting the new additions—who Charlie seemed utterly fascinated by—while the others were going about their regular duties: Specs in the crow’s nest, Skittery crawling across the arms to monitor the solar sails, Romeo checking control panels near the bottom of the larger mast. “I admit—I was hoping that ‘In Time of Need’ would actually  _ point _ us in the direction we needed to take to find Katherine. While I’m convinced that our new friends will be helpful to the achievement of our ultimate goal, they unfortunately haven’t given us anywhere to start besides what we already had.”

Spot nodded and leaned against one of JoJo’s command consoles, crossing his arms over his chest. The breeze of the air circulators ruffled the fur on his ears and they twitched slightly. He chewed on his lip as he thought. “JoJo?” he said finally.

“Yes, sir?”

“Set our heading for... for Hyrule.”

“Hyrule?”

“Yes.”

“In the Outer Rim?”

Spot arched a bushy eyebrow. “That  _ is _ where we were heading anyways, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, but… why Hyrule?”

“I second that question,” said Davey. “Why Hyrule, out of all the planets in the Outer Rim?”

“Technically, Hyrule isn’t  _ in _ the Outer Rim,” said JoJo. “It’s past the Outer Rim. Not terribly far from… Kamino, if I’m not mistaken.”

“You’re correct,” said Spot.

“So why Hyrule?” Davey pressed.

Spot sighed. He hated having to explain himself—that was the worst part about working for someone. “I have a lead. An old friend—someone I served under in the Resistance. I’ve heard an alias she used frequently mentioned in relation to Hyrule several times recently. Well, technically, not directly in relation to Hyrule, but she and I both used to work in intelligence. It’s a breadcrumb. A way to find her, if you know how to interpret the code.”

Charlie looked up at Davey, who shrugged. “It’s as good a lead as any,” said the mage. “I trust the captain.”

Charlie nodded firmly. “Then Hyrule it is.”

“Course set, Captain!” JoJo sang out.

“Are the solar cells charged?”

“All cells at maximum, sir.”

Spot stepped away from the ship’s wheel, which he had taken over when JoJo moved away to run the hyperspace calculations, relinquishing it to JoJo. He stepped up to the hyperspace controls and did a quick check of the hyperspace route. He moved to the railing in front of JoJo’s wheel and leaned out towards the lower deck to call out: “All hands, prepare to jump to hyperspace!”

In seconds, Skittery had shimmered down the mast to join Romeo, Finch, Jack, Race, and Elmer on the deck.

“Wait, what does that mean?” Elmer asked as he and his friends followed Finch towards the mast.

“It means we’re about to jump to hyperspace,” Finch called over his shoulder.

“So what do we need to do?” Race asked.

Finch handed each of them a length of rope and showed them where to tie onto the mast. “These are lifelines,” he explained. “Their original purpose, back before these sorts of ships were able to leave atmosphere, and before they had the transparisteel bubbles around them, was to keep crew from floating or falling off of the ship, particularly in case of loss of artificial gravity. Now, they mostly just keep us mostly in place when we jump to hyperspace and the inertial dampeners have overcompensate, resulting in a brief period of time where we can either be pushed off of our feet or actually float off of the deck.”

Elmer’s eyes widened and he hastily tied his lifeline to the mast, then around his waist. Jack and Race did the same, and Finch checked all of their knots before turning to give Spot and JoJo a thumbs up.

Spot nodded at Finch and turned to JoJo to confirm readiness to make the hyperspace jump. She grinned and locked the wheel in place, then moved to the control console. “Permission to jump to hyperspace, Captain?” she called.

“Permission granted,” Spot called back.

“Jumping to hyperspace!”

As the stars slowly stretched into streaks of light around the transparisteel bubble, surrounding the ship with whirls of flashing starshine, Jack felt his feet slowly lift off the deck. Sure enough, in seconds he was floating off of the deck, absolutely weightless. Beside him, Elmer laughed incredulously and waved his arms slowly. Finch rolled his eyes, but there was a definite grin on his beak. Race grinned and rolled onto his stomach, pretending to swim through the air. A few seconds later, when the ship settled into hyperspace and the artificial gravity and inertial dampeners kicked back on, he landed flat on his stomach on the planking of the deck with a  _ thud _ and a groan. Romeo and Finch sniggered, and Jack had to hide a grin as he reached down to help Race to his feet. “Honestly; what did you  _ think _ would happen?”

“I didn’t,” Race grumbled, accepting Jack’s hand up.

Spot shook his head as he watched Jack pull Race to his feet. “Those new guys are going to wind up being more trouble than they’re worth, just wait and see.”

Davey shrugged. “I promise: they’ll wind up being useful at some point.”

Spot arched an eyebrow. “Hopefully that  _ point _ isn’t too far in the future.”

.*.*.*.*.*.

“So, what are we supposed to do while the ship’s in hyperspace?” Jack asked, trailing after Finch and Romeo, Race and Elmer on his heels.

“Well, we don’t have cargo, and the ship’s just been repaired, so honestly? not much,” Finch shrugged.

“It may look like one, but this ship isn’t much like an  _ actual _ sailing ship,” said Romeo. “Most of those needed a crew of about fifteen, and there was a lot that had to be done pretty much all the time. This ship, we just have to monitor systems and the solar sails, which only takes three or four people while we’re in hyperspace.”

“We take shifts in the galley, but there’s really not a lot going on,” Finch shrugged. “But don’t worry—we’ll find stuff for you guys to do.”

“Since you’re new, we’ll have to train you on systems and show you how to do some of the regular maintenance,” said Romeo. “Monitoring solar sails, hyperspace engines, shield generators, that sort of thing.”

“Also, depending how far we’re going, the ship may have to make a stop to recharge,” said Finch. “The solar sails can’t collect as much UV radiation when we’re in hyperspace—I think it’s something to do with the increase in shield strength—so we’ll eventually have to stop and recharge the power cells. So if and when that happens, we’ll be able to run you over some of the other stuff to do with sails, without the pressure of having to do it while we make port.”

“I have another job for the three of you as well.”

Spot’s voice materializing behind them made all five of them jump, and they turned around hastily to face the captain, Finch and Romeo offering half-hearted salutes, at which Spot arched a single eyebrow. “Do the three of you have any combat training?” he asked, turning his attention fully towards the new hires.

“‘Combat training’?” Elmer repeated.

“Yes,” said Spot. “Hand-to-hand, with weapons—anything.”

“I mean, Race and I can hold our own pretty well in a bar fight,” Jack shrugged. “But nothing formal.”

“I’m a pretty fair shot with a blaster,” Race supplied. Jack gave him an odd look out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t press the topic.

“Well, we’ll have to get you trained up,” said Spot. “Don’t want you to be defenseless if we get attacked again.” He turned and walked away.

“‘Attacked’?” Elmer repeated.

“‘ _ Again _ ’?” Jack asked.

“Didn’t you wonder why there were openings on the crew?” Romeo asked.

“We had some run-ins with Metalbeard’s crew before we came to Proserpina. Lost a few of our crewmates.” Finch ruffled the feathers on his arms, preening at a spot on his left shoulder.

“Yeah, Davey mentioned something about that,” said Jack. “He failed to elaborate on exactly  _ what _ happened though.”

“Well, if you knew we’d had run-ins with pirates, why are you so surprised to be fighting them?” Romeo said.

“I guess we just didn’t realize that you thought more attacks might be imminent,” said Jack slowly.

Finch finished preening and shrugged. “Any trip through the Outer Rim risks running into pirates. It’s just that… Metalbeard seemingly may—or may not—be after us…”

“Great,” Jack muttered.  _ What exactly did we sign up for here? _


	8. Chapter 7

Jack grunted as Spot’s foot made contact with his side, definitely not full-force, but the captain was clearly not fully pulling his punches—or, rather, kicks. Jack staggered to the side and narrowly dodged a swing of the captain’s fist.  _ Geez, this guy is fast! _ he hardly had the time to think before Spot was swinging at him again. Jack jumped away, landing on his right foot first. Before his left could meet the deck, Spot was down in a crouch and had swung his leg out, knocking Jack off his balance and flat on his back on the deck.

Jack felt every bit of air leave his lungs in a single  _ whoosh _ . There was some sniggering from the crew gathered around them. Jack felt too dazed to get up. After a few moments, JoJo—who had been perched on a nearby crate, peeling and slicing an unfamiliar fruit with a knife and eating the pieces directly off of the blade in what  _ had _ to be some sort of power move—hopped up and strode over. She offered him her hand and helped him to his feet. Jack tried not to stare at the down on the back of her hand that transitioned into a rainbow array of feathers as it stretched up to her elbow. She wore a bright red shirt, puffy in the shoulders and chest but ruched around her midsection and in bands just above her elbows, where the feathers ended, and form-fitting black leather pants. She grinned at Jack as she helped him up and patted him on the arm with the hand that still held the knife.

“Don’t take it too personally. Spot’s had military training. No-one on the ship can beat him in a fair fight.”

“Oh, yeah, that makes me feel  _ so _ much better,” Jack grumbled, rotating his arm as he followed her out of the ring.

“Who’s next?” Spot grinned, baring a pair of sharp fangs.

.*.*.*.*.*.

The combat lessons continued much in the same way for the next four days. Jack didn’t feel like he or the others were improving much, but JoJo assured him that they were, albeit slowly. No matter what, he felt constantly sore, and Race and Elmer voiced similar complaints.

On the second day, they dropped out of hyperspace in a busy system to recharge the solar batteries.  Jack was instructed to tail Finch, Race to follow Romeo, and Elmer to follow Skittery while they were in the system. Elmer spent most of the stall crawling across the yard arms with Skittery, supervising the solar sails. Similarly, Finch soared up and down the masts to monitor the sails for tearing, while Jack did his best to keep up while shimmying up and down the rigging. Race and Romeo, on the other hand, stayed mostly on the deck, monitoring system readouts and scanner screens to make sure nothing was trying to sneak up on them. Everyone seemed on edge through the duration of the stopover, and everyone was armed with vibro-shivs and blasters for the two days that it took to fully recharge the solar batteries.

Once the ship was back in hyperspace, resuming its course for Hyrule, the combat lessons resumed for Jack and his friends—with one new addition. Now, they were joined by Charlie, the quiet human ever accompanied by Davey, and nicknamed the “Little Prince” by Spot and the rest of the crew.

“Why do you guys call him that?” Elmer asked, the day after they were back in hyperspace. He, Finch, and Specs were watching Jack and Charlie spar, a slow-motion dance of sorts as Charlie, JoJo, and Spot critiqued Jack’s form.

“It started out as a kind of joke,” Specs explained. “Charlie and Katherine—his sister, the one we’re trying to rescue—are the adopted children of a business mogul in the core worlds. He may not be an actual monarch, but he’s definitely given the royal treatment a lot of the time, and it’s the same for his kids.”

“It’s not the nicest nickname, sure, but he doesn’t seem to mind,” Finch shrugged. “Katherine’ll slap you across the face if you call her ‘Princess’. She doesn’t seem to like to be reminded of her privilege. But Charlie’s a good kid. He’s nice about pretty much everything. And not nearly as much of a diva as his sister can be.”

Specs snorted, then coughed to cover the sound as Spot and Davey glanced their way, the captain arching one of his thick eyebrows. “It’s not like she’s that bad. She’s nice enough. She’s just… particular. Not to mention used to getting things her way.”

“We don’t mind going to rescue her, really,” Finch said quickly. “We’d do it even if we hadn’t been ordered to, probably. No-one deserves to be captured and have who-knows-what done to them by pirates.”

“Speak for yourself,” Specs said. “I have more sense of self-preservation than you. I don’t really want to get into a fight with pirates  _ again _ .” Without another word, he kicked off from the deck and soared up towards the control center by the ship’s wheel.

.*.*.*.*.*.

Jack’s head bounced off of the hard deck and he groaned, glaring up at the stars streaking past the top of the transparisteel canopy. “Ow,” he groaned. He was starting to get tired of how often he had been winding up in this position the past few days.

Charlie laughed, a soft, almost musical sound, and reached up to help Jack to his feet. “You’re getting better, I promise,” he grinned up at the taller man.

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better,” Jack grumbled. He let Charlie help him to his feet. “How’d you get to be this good anyways?”

“I’ve been training since I was adopted,” said Charlie. “My father wanted me to be able to defend myself, just in case. Katherine too.”

“Yeah, well, clearly the training paid off,” Jack muttered.

“Thanks,” Charlie grinned. He released Jack’s arm and stepped back, bowing slightly. “You did well. Thanks for the spar.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jack mumbled, flushing slightly.

“Jack, let’s run a sail check,” Finch called.

Jack turned and nodded to the Rito. When he turned back, Charlie was already heading towards the upper deck, where Davey, JoJo, and Spot were standing around the control consoles. Jack bit back a smile and turned to head towards Finch, already looking forward to the next day’s training.

.*.*.*.*.*.

“Captain Conlon?”

Spot looked up at the sound of Davey’s voice. “Davey. We’re out of hyperspace.”

“I’d noticed,” the mage said wryly, glancing upwards at the transparisteel canopy over their heads, through which distant stars were clearly visible, no longer streaking past as they had been for their journey, but stable in their positions. “Have we reached Hyrule?”

“Yes,” Spot nodded, pointing at a large blue planet not far in front of the ship, resembling some kind of jewel suspended in the black canopy of space. The transparisteel on the starboard side of the ship was heavily tinted, blocking out the brilliant light of the system’s sun, but the light still shone through the rest of the shielded deck. “There’s a port on the east side of the main continent, along with many smaller cities across the islands in the seas of the southern hemisphere. I’m planning to make for the continental port. If my contact has been here, that seems like the most likely place to find information on her.”

Davey shrugged. “If that’s what you think is best.”

Spot sighed. “If you have a better idea, feel free to go ahead and put it forward.”

“I never said I did,” Davey smiled tightly. “Just remember: it’s my job to keep Charlie and Katherine safe”—

“Yeah, and you haven’t been doing so great at that lately, have you?” Spot interjected. “Katherine’s been kidnapped, and Charlie’s lost a leg—and don’t forget about the three members of our crew that are dead. Maybe if you give me a chance to do what I do best, we can keep further harm from coming to them or anyone else on this ship.”


	9. Chapter 8

JoJo pulled her hood up over her feathers and fell in step beside Spot. They were making their way through Hyrule’s busy port city, which seemed to be mostly populated by the native Hylians and Rito, a members of the other races—Gerudo, Goron, and Zora—easily spotted in the crowd, despite being few and far between. “Where to first, Captain?” JoJo murmured.

“Finch?” Spot glanced over his shoulder to where Finch and Specs were trailing along behind Spot and JoJo, blending in with the crowd far better than Spot and JoJo given that easily a quarter of it was made up of their own race.

Finch pointed towards a tall building in the distance, his golden feathers ruffling in the sea breeze. “That’s the inn. If we’re going to find people from off-world, it’s probably there.”

“Hyrule isn’t the biggest on visitors,” said Specs. “And given how far from even the Outer Rim the planet is, there aren’t a lot of people who’d come here anyways.”

Spot bared his fangs at a Goron that was staring at him with wide eyes, although the grimace didn’t have quite the intended effect, as the man continued to stare, apparently even more fascinated at the revelation of the sharp teeth. “I can see that,” he muttered.

“There’s a bar on the bottom level of the inn,” said Finch. “It’s also one of the best places to eat in the port. Most tourists come through there at some point or another.”

Spot nodded. He came to a stop and looked around. “Alright. JoJo, Specs, head for the bar. Keep your ears open for any mention of someone named Allie Raysh. Finch and I will head for the cargo docks.”

JoJo grinned and shook her head. “You know, Spot, every now and then I remember why you’re in charge.”

Spot arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”

JoJo shrugged. “Hey, what can I say. You come up with good ideas sometimes.”

.*.*.*.*.*.

“So, Captain, I gotta ask: why are we heading for the cargo docks?” Finch asked, shortening his stride to keep an easy but brisk pace at Spot’s side.

“Allie has a lot of connections among the smuggling community,” said Spot. “If that’s what she’s up to now, the cargo docks are a good place to start looking for her.”

“How are you such good friends with a smuggler?” Finch laughed. “I thought you’d avoided stuff like that. Tried to keep your nose clean and all.”

“I have, since leaving the Resistance,” Spot grumbled. “But I did some work with their intelligence faction while I was there. Not all of our contacts were exactly… above board.”

Finch grinned to himself as Spot quickened his pace, clearly signalling the end of the conversation. For the next hour or so, the two roamed up and down the docks, looking for any sign that Spot could connect to his contact. Unfortunately, they came up dry. Finally, they retreated into a small privacy alcove that looked out over the space dock, and Spot pulled out his communicator. “JoJo, come in.”

A few seconds later, JoJo’s voice crackled over the comlink in response:  _ <<“Captain.”>> _

“Have you and Specs found anything?” Spot asked.

_ <<“Unfortunately, no, sir, we haven’t. No mention of an ‘Allie Raysh’. We’ve even asked a few people Specs recognized if they’ve heard of her, but none of them recognized the name.”>> _

“Great,” Spot sighed. “We’re drawing blanks at the docks, too.”

_ <<“What should we do next, sir?”>> _

Spot stared out at the space docks, thinking.

_ <<“Sir?”>> _

“Hang on a minute, JoJo. I want to check something out—something I didn’t notice before. If you don’t hear from us, head back to the  _ Banner _ in an hour.”

_ <<“Will do, sir. JoJo and Specs out.”>> _

Finch followed Spot as he headed towards one of the nearby freighters—a small, Baylor-class ship that looked like it had been repaired far beyond the point at which it should have been scrapped. “Captain?” he called, having to rush to keep up with Spot.

Spot didn’t answer, quickening his own pace to a brisk jog. Finch gave up on getting answers, and focused on keeping track of his captain on the busy dock. As he neared the space that the freighter was docked in, he heard Spot call out: “Garen!”

When Finch emerged from the crowd, he saw Spot embracing a remarkably average-looking human man. They pulled apart and the man grinned down at Spot. “Conlon! Good to see you! What brings you this far out? Last I heard you were flying for the fleet of a Hapan businessman.”

“Still am, sort of,” Spot said. “Look, I need to talk to you. You got a minute?”

“For an old friend?” Garen grinned. “Sure thing.”

.*.*.*.*.*.

The inside of the freighter was just as heavily-repaired as the outside had been. Exposed wiring ran along the sides of the corridors, control panels were missing their interfaces, and there were a multitude of patches on the walls and ceilings. Finch had to duck his head to go through the doorways, which were lower than standard openings, and kept getting low-level shocks when his feathers brushed against the wiring despite his best efforts to keep clear of it.

“Sorry about the mess,” Garen called over his shoulder. “This ship is our newest acquisition. This is her maiden voyage. We’re still working out some of the kinks in the overhaul we did.”

“Exposed live wiring is a kink?” Finch mumbled, rubbing his arm.

Garen just laughed and led them into the ship’s galley. “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing at a table surrounded by mismatched chairs. Spot and Finch sat down on one side of the table, while Garen took a seat across from them. “So, what can I do for you?”

“I need your help,” said Spot, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table, templing his fingers together. “I’m looking for Allie Raysh.”

Garen’s eyebrows shot up and he crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. Despite his posture, Finch could tell that the question had set the other man on edge, and he was now clearly on guard. That in and of itself put Finch on guard, although Spot seemed unbothered.

“Allie Raysh?” Garen repeated, voice flat. “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long, long time.”

“What, since the Resistance?” Spot asked. “I find that hard to believe.”

“How so?” Garen asked, lifting his chin.

“Because  _ I’ve _ been hearing it all over the place ever since I started venturing out into the Outer Rim regularly,” said Spot. “And from what  _ else _ I’ve heard, Rengar Olis has a certain amount of… overlap with Captain Raysh.”

Garen’s face broke into a grin. “Okay, okay—you got me. Yeah, I’ve seen her around. Even crossed paths a few times and run a couple of jobs together.”

Spot arched an eyebrow. “That’s not what I’ve heard.”

“And what exactly  _ have _ you heard, Spot?” Garen asked, leaning forward and mirroring Spot’s posture.

Spot smirked slightly behind his hands. “Rumors. Rumors that a group of ex-Resistance members have set up a safe-haven colony past the Outer Rim. I’ve also heard the names Allie Raysh and Rengar Olis in conjunction with requisitions, runs, and other assorted rumors with connections to the colony.”

Garen laughed and shook his head, leaning back in his chair again. “You always were good.”

Spot shrugged, taking his turn at mimicking the other man’s posture. “I learned from the best.”

Garen snorted. “Fair enough. I’ll tell Allie you said hi.”

“I’d rather tell her myself,” said Spot. “Can you tell me where to find her?”


	10. Chapter 9

Aleesha Shray sighed and wiped her brow, leaving a smear of engine grease across her forehead. It was unseasonably hot, and the sun beating down overhead was scorching on the bare skin of her arms. “The rainy season cannot come soon enough,” she grumbled.

“Yeah, and as soon as it gets here you’ll be whining about how much you miss the sun,” her brother Ben teased, nudging her with his foot. “How’s it looking in there?”

“I can’t find anything wrong with it,” Aleesha grumbled. “Can you take a look?”

“Sure,” Ben grinned. Aleesha scooted over on the grating of the scaffold platform, allowing Ben to settle down in her place in front of the access hatch in the side of the ship she’d been poking around in. After a few minutes, he pulled his hands out of the hatch, just as covered in grease as his sister. “I got nothing. Maybe it’s in a different section?”

“The diagnostic readout said it was here,” Aleesha grumbled.

“Oh, come on, Leesh,” Ben teased, “you should know better than to trust a diagnostic readout completely.”

Aleesha snorted. “I guess you’re right,” she said. She pulled a datapad out of her pocket and passed it to Ben. He plugged it into the diagnostics port inside the panel and squinted at the results that scrolled across the screen.

“According to this, there’s nothing wrong,” he sighed, disconnecting the pad and passing it back to Aleesha.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she grumbled.

“Back to the overview it is,” Ben laughed. He crawled to the edge of the scaffolding and shimmied down the side, Aleesha following once he was on the ground. They headed into the ship, arguing over the datapad.

Inside the ship, they found Bruck Celchu, a thin, wiry human boy with icy blue hair, matching eyes, and fair skin, hunched over the navicomputer in the cockpit.

“How’s it going?” Aleesha asked, patting Bruck on the shoulder as she and Ben slipped past him, leaving a greasy handprint on his white shirt.

“Almost done,” Bruck replied. “The navicomputer had to be completely reconfigured, not to mention updating both hardware and software. But it’s in pretty good shape now. Should be pretty much optimized. I might have to do some fiddling to get it  _ really _ perfect, but…”

“Good to hear,” Aleesha grinned. “Ben, what does that readout say?”

“No errors,” Ben sighed.

“Seriously?” Aleesha demanded, leaning over his shoulder to look at the readout on the datapad screen. “Kriffing… Fine. Whatever. I’ll check it again later; maybe it’ll decide to cooperate then.”

Ben laughed, disconnected the datapad, and passed it to his sister. “Got anything else for me while I’m here?”

“Nothing ship-wise, but I’m sure you know there are lots of other things that could use your attention right now,” Aleesha led the way back out of the ship and into the beating sun. “The hydroponics systems both in the city and on the  _ Breath of the Wild _ have had rolling malfunctions. Orrill is doing his best with the ones on the ship, but he said he could use another set of hands, and no-one currently on duty up there has mechanical skills. Besides that, the environmental controls in apartment block four have also been malfunctioning. It’s getting too cold in there at night for the Aleena.”

Ben nodded. “Where do you want me to start?”

Aleesha sighed. “I guess with the environmental controls. The temp dropped so low in there last night that Jola and Tabrin had a few Aleena come in with early-stage hypothermia. They’re cold-blooded, so it really doesn’t take much.”

“Will do,” said Ben.

“I think I have time to check on the city hydroponic system,” Aleesha continued. “If not, another day shouldn’t kill it. And Orrill can handle the ship’s system until you can get up there. If there’s an emergency, he’ll call.”

“Aleesha!” the call came from the other side of the flight deck. Aleesha groaned inwardly, but turned to find the source of the shout. She waved at the figure jogging towards her.

“I’ll catch you later,” Ben grinned. “Good luck.”

Aleesha let out a wordless grumble as Ben left and the new figure joined her. “What is it, Myckela?” she sighed.

“You got a minute?” Myckela asked, falling in step beside Aleesha as the smaller woman resumed her journey towards the city’s hydroponics labs. While much of the food the occupants of the city needed to survive was grown in the converted freighter in geosynchronous orbit over the settlement, the  _ Breath of the Wild _ , medicinal herbs and similar plants were grown in a more easily-accessible garden in a converted medical lab in the city itself.

Haven, while viewed as something of a utopia by its inhabitants, was a scavenged city. It was inhabited entirely by refugees and former members of the Galactic Resistance that had become disillusioned with their fellow rebels, and had taken over an abandoned polis on a dead world, decimated by a plague over a decade earlier, which had wiped out almost all of the native peoples. What had originally begun as a small band of former brothers-in-arms, trying to make a better life for themselves, and anyone else who wanted it without the bureaucracy of the Resistance, had boomed into an entire civilization that was rapidly running out of space in the city it occupied and was preparing to expand to a second. Because everything they had was recycled, however, that meant that malfunctions were common, and jerry-rigging to repair them was just as frequent.

“Can you walk and talk?” Aleesha asked. As one of the colony’s founders, her attention tended to be in high demand. Today was an  _ easy _ day. So far, at least.

“Sure,” Myckela said.

“Then what do you need?”

“I’ve been measuring the water level on the city’s supports regularly, as you know,” Myckela explained. “Trying to get better at predicting when the rainy season will start and how bad the storms will be.”

“And?”

“As you know, the planet is mostly ocean, with the exception of some fairly small landmasses over the poles. That’s why all of the original cities were built with supports going down into the ocean floor at relatively shallow points in the seabed. That means that by checking the water level here, I can get a decent idea of where it’s at across the planet.”

“Right.”

“Well, my recent measurements of the water level on our supports is… concerning, to say the least?”

“Myckela…”

“Sorry, right,” the scientist laughed sheepishly. “Basically, we know that the planet’s water cycle generally pulls evaporating water from the ocean to storm systems that form over the poles for about half of the year. When they grow to a certain point, they begin to break out and spread across the rest of the planet, leading to the six-month rainy season we’ve come to know and love—or maybe hate. The more water the storm systems suck up, the heavier the rains, the worse the storms, and so on.”

“So the fact that we’re currently at what is, at least to our knowledge, an unprecedented low in planetary water level means that we’ll also likely be facing storms of unprecedented power,” Aleesha finished.

“As far as I can tell,” Myckela sighed. “If I could get weather data recorded by the city’s original occupants, my predictions could be  _ way _ more on point, but it was too corrupted by the damage done to the computer systems by scavengers before we got here. I’ve reached out to the members of the restoration team on Sanctum, asking them to keep an eye out for anything about meteorological trends, but they’re coming up empty, too, for now.”

Aleesha nodded. “Draft some plans on what we need to do to get through the storms. There’s a council meeting next week. I want you to at least have something to present by then.”

“Will do,” Myckela nodded. “See you ‘round, Captain.”

“See ya.”

Aleesha only made it a few feet further on the walkway before red lights began to flash and a siren sounded. “Now what?” she groaned, tapping her earpiece. “What’s going on?”

<< _ Captain, we have an incoming ship.>> _

“Who is it?” Aleesha asked, turning on her heel and heading back towards the main flight deck, this time at a dead run.

_ <<The ship is signalling itself as the  _ Banner _. No records in our systems.>> _

“Get them on hailing frequencies. Patch them through to me if you do.”

_ <<Coming through now, ma’am.>> _

Aleesha came to a stop a few feet from the starfighter she had been heading towards. “This is Captain Aleesha Shray of Haven. State your name and business here or you will be shot down.”

The radio fizzled for a moment, then a tinny voice sounded in her ear.  _ <<Aleesha Shray? I thought you were going by Allie Raysh now. _ >>

Aleesha let out a short laugh and shook her head. She tapped the earpiece to switch frequencies. “Haven Defense Fleet, stand down. They’re friendlies.” Her voice echoed through the loudspeakers around the flight deck. In a few moments, the ships were powered down, the alarm had been turned off, and people were trickling back to their duties around the city. Aleesha switched back to the hailing frequency. “Conlon. Good to hear from you. What brings you to Haven?”

_ <<I need some information. I’m hoping you’ll have it.>> _

“Well, I’ll do what I can,” Aleesha replied. “Flight control will direct you to an open landing platform.”

_ <<No need. We can make a water landing.>> _

Aleesha arched her eyebrows. “Whatever you say, Conlon. See you soon.”

.*.*.*.*.*.

Ben joined Aleesha at the railing of the walkway that ran around Haven’s exterior. “I hear we have visitors.”

“Yep. Did you get the Aleena’s weather controls fixed?”

“Yeah, it was a short in the temperature control mechanism. I repaired the wiring. I’ll monitor it for a few days to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’m also going to try and rig a diagnostic relay straight to my datapad, to keep an eye out for future malfunctions before they can blow up into something big and get people hurt.”

“Good plan,” Aleesha nodded.

“So, who’s incoming?”

“You remember Spot Conlon?”

“Wasn’t he in officer training with you and Obi?”

“That’s the one. We worked together in intelligence for a while, too. He was under my command.”

“Okay, what about him?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon,” Aleesha pointed at the silhouette descending from the sky above them.

Ben’s jaw dropped in utter amazement. “Wait… That’s a sky-sailer.”

“A what?”

“Pretty much the  _ ultimate _ pleasure cruiser on today’s market. Designed after ancient sea-sailing vessels. Entirely self-sufficient—they draw all of their power from solar sails. They don’t even need fuel. They’re protected by a retractable bubble of reinforced transparisteel and some pretty heavy-duty shields.”

“Fancy,” Aleesha whistled.

“They can also serve as sea-sailers. In fact, something like that would come in pretty handy around here, especially with the second colony under construction.”

“Ben,” Aleesha sighed. “If they’re top-of-the-line pleasure cruisers, we can’t exactly  _ afford _ them.”

“No, no—I don’t mean  _ buy _ one, I mean  _ build _ one!” Ben said excitedly. “I could totally rig something up. I wouldn’t trust it to leave atmosphere, but to get between here and Sanctum? No problem. I bet I could even rig up some low-grade hoverfield emitters and engines so it doesn’t have to sail across the water when it’s really turbulent, and ways to draw power from wind and tidal energy for when the sun isn’t strong enough to charge the sails.”

“Sounds like a tall order,” Aleesha said.

“Oh please,” Ben grinned. “If anyone can do it, I can.”

Aleesha arched an eyebrow as she pulled away from the railing. “We’ll talk about it later. For now, let’s go meet our guests.”

Down on one of the lowest piers of Haven, Aleesha and Ben waited as the  _ Banner _ touched down in the water and floated slowly into her berth. A mechanical gangplank extended up from the ship’s deck, anchoring itself on the edge of the pier. A few minutes later, a head appeared over the lip of the walkway. Aleesha grinned and leaned down to offer her hand to the person climbing up the stairs. “Spot Conlon. Welcome to Haven.”


	11. Chapter Ten

“So. You’ve really gone legit.”

Aleesha shrugged, grinning. “Close enough. My crew and I do smuggling runs for the cash we need for supplies, but the colony itself is legit, yeah.”

“Seems like a pretty nice place,” Spot said, looking around the flight deck Aleesha had led him, JoJo, and Davey to.

“It’s better than a world ripped to shreds by the war between the Resistance and the First Order,” said Aleesha. “Most of the people who live here are refugees from planets caught in the middle of battles, or that have been strip-mined for anything useful by the First Order. Sometimes the Resistance, too, but they’re at least  _ slightly _ better at choosing uninhabited worlds for their bases, so fewer lives get destroyed when they come through a planet.”

Spot nodded. “Where did all these ships come from?” He gestured at a small collection of freighters lined neatly up along the flight deck.

“Decommissioned from some old transport fleet,” said Aleesha. “We’ve been buying them one at a time and fixing them up with proceeds from smuggling runs. That’s how we transport supplies, plus they make up our defense fleet, and if we ever have to evacuate the city, they’re really the only way for us to do so.”

Spot nodded again. “Seems like you’ve got a pretty good operation going on here.”

Aleesha shrugged. “It’s not so bad,” she grinned. “But I have to ask… what brings you here?”

Spot opened his mouth to answer, but didn’t get a chance to speak before a voice called his name from across the deck. He looked up and grinned, waving slightly at the figure hurrying towards their small group. “Hey, Obi,” he grinned as Aleesha and Ben’s older brother joined them.

“It’s good to see you, Spot,” Obi clapped a hand against the captain’s shoulder and fell in step beside him. “I never thought we’d see you again—and here of all places!”

Spot laughed sheepishly. “Yeah. It’s been a while, huh?”

“You were about to explain  _ why _ you’d come to Haven, I think?” Aleesha piped up.

“Right,” said Spot. “Back when we were with the Resistance—you guys know—once you found someone you could trust, you never let them go if you could help it. Well, just because I left the Resistance doesn’t mean I forgot about the people I trust. The three of you—and the whole old Gambit team, really—are the only people I’ve ever been able to fully trust in my life. Back working intelligence with all of you, that was important. You had to be able to trust the people who knew who you were, since your life was literally in their hands. We all did a lot of favors for each other, too.”

“What do you need?” Obi asked.

“Anything we can do, you got it,” Ben added. “I’m sure at least one of us owes you for something at some point from back then.”

“Probably more than a few favors are owed, honestly,” Aleesha grinned.

“That’s what I was counting on,” Spot admitted. “I need information. On Captain Metalbeard.”

Obi’s eyes went wide and Ben’s jaw dropped. Aleesha, on the other hand, quirked her lips up into a half-smile, tucked her hands in her pockets, and relaxed her shoulders. “Obi, Ben, why don’t you help Spot’s crew get comfortable in the city. He and I have some things to talk about.”

“Sure,” Obi nodded. He nudged Ben, and the other boy snapped his mouth shut. “Come on,” Obi turned to Davey and JoJo. “Let’s get the rest of your crew. I’m Obi Shray, by the way. This is my brother Ben.”

“I’m JoJo,” the Onotoran smiled, her feathered crest ruffling slightly. “That’s Davey.”

“Nice to meet you.” Obi and JoJo’s voices trailed off as they headed back towards where the  _ Banner _ was docked. Aleesha and Spot watched them go; when Davey cast an uncertain glance back over his shoulder, Spot offered him a reassuring nod—a silent promise that he would do what he needed to.

“So,” said Aleesha, pivoting on her heel and leading the way into the domed city. “Metalbeard. That’s ambitious. What are you now, a bounty hunter? I thought you were running for some Mid Rim business bigwig. Last I heard, anyways.”

“You always did have ears everywhere,” Spot laughed. “Yeah, that’s still what I’m doing. We had a run-in with Metalbeard a few weeks back. Busted up my ship pretty good, killed a few of my crew, and got away with one of my boss’s kids.”

“Kidnapping? That doesn’t seem like Metalbeard’s style, from what I’ve heard.”

“I don’t think it is, but  _ apparently _ my boss is his brother. Davey thinks Metalbeard is trying to get back at him or prove some kind of point by nabbing his kids. We can’t get in touch with their father, though, so it looks like it’s up to us to get her back.”

Aleesha nodded sagely, but fell silent as they made their way through the city. Spot recognized a surprising number of the faces they passed in the hall; he hadn’t realized how many people he knew had followed Aleesha when she left the Resistance.

_ The rift between members of the Resistance had been growing larger and larger by the day for months now. Two main camps had formed: the primary, and larger, group fell under the leadership of what was left of the Senate of the New Republic; the second group was made up mostly of people who had devoted their lives to protecting the galaxy’s citizens from the evils that plagued them, from remnants of the Galactic Empire to ravaging pirates in the Outer Rim. Several spokespeople had risen from among the ranks of this smaller group, not the least of which was a fiery, outspoken young pilot named Aleesha Shray. She, like many of her followers, had literally grown up in military service, in a program called the Gambit Initiative that accepted teenagers from across the galaxy and trained them as pilots, intelligence operatives, and more.  _

_ However, the Gambit Initiative had failed in one aspect, it seemed: rather than training loyal-to-a-fault warriors willing to serve their government no matter what, it created a generation of strong-willed, independent operatives driven to do what was right, even if it meant open defiance of orders. While they had been a force to be reckoned with while they served the senate and military council, the older generations now began to fear what they had created as their pet project rose up against them, garnering more and more support both in and out of the ranks of the Resistance. _

_ Spot Conlon hadn’t had many prospects before he joined Gambit when he was fourteen. Aleesha, who was the same age as him, was already miles ahead of him, despite having only been in the program a year longer. She was a naturally gifted pilot, charismatic leader, and a fair strategist. When her latent magical powers were discovered, it came as a surprise to no-one—if anything, it explained her other gifts. _

__ _ Years later, Spot was assigned to a unit under Aleesha’s command—one of the most elite in the entire New Republic Space Navy. In the years they served together, both in pilot squadrons and intelligence units, they became close friends and developed a fierce sense of loyalty to one another, just as they did with many of the others they served with. When Aleesha began to speak out against the actions of the senate that left billions of people across to galaxy—particularly citizens of poor planets, like most of the Outer Rim—at the mercy of the rapidly-expanding First Order, many of the other Gambit operatives fell in line behind her, adding their own voices to the outcry against the senate. As they had been the first line of defense against pirates and other rogues on small and poor worlds across the galaxy for nearly a decade, many of these worlds threw their support in behind them as well. _

__ _ Overwhelmed by the growing opposition, the senate leaders that now headed up the Resistance gave an ultimatum: fall in line, or leave the Resistance, forfeiting any measure of protection the organization would have offered. They were shocked when nearly a third of their soldiers opted to leave, rather than allow themselves to be controlled by a government they disagreed with on such a fundamental level. “We were trained to go where we were needed, and help who needed our help,” they said. “We will not be stopped from doing so.” _

__ _ Some of the former Gambit members formed small militias, setting up bases on worlds that seemed to be particular targets of the First Order. Others set off on their own, operating as assassins, mercenaries, or bounty hunters. Aleesha, her brothers, and many of their closest allies set out to find a new home, not just for themselves, but for anyone else they could rescue from the First Order—and thus Haven was born. _

“We’ve missed you,” said Aleesha, leading Spot into a small, cluttered office.

“Yeah,” Spot smiled slightly. “You know, I’d’ve come with you if I’d known you were building a place like this.”

Aleesha laughed. “When we left the Resistance, you and Hotshot disappeared so fast! We had no way to contact you. Well, I’m sure we could’ve figured it out if we’d really tried, but… Anyways, we didn’t set out to build a place like this. At first, we just settled in the abandoned city to use it as a temporary base that we could strike against the First Order from in this part of the Outer Rim. Then we started rescuing people, and didn’t have anywhere else to send them, so we started fixing it up as a place to live. And, well… it just kind of spiralled out of control, and now we’re working on repairing a second city nearby.”

“It’s pretty impressive,” Spot grinned.

“Obi and Siri do most of the administrative work,” Aleesha shrugged. “Skanton Ru, too; he defected a little while after the rest of us. There are a few others, but I’m not sure if you know any of them.”

“I’m surprised how many people around here I  _ do _ know,” Spot said. “And kind of equally surprised by how many I don’t.”

“Yeah, me too,” Aleesha laughed. “But there’s always room for more. That’s what the second city is for. You know… We could use someone like you around here. If you ever get tired of running for big-time businessmen, that is.” She winked.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Spot laughed. “But I have to get Katherine back first. It’s my fault she was taken. I can’t leave her in Metalbeard’s hands.”

“Fair enough,” Aleesha nodded. She settled down at the desk and fished out a tablet. “Let’s see what we can find on that pirate.”

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies, Star Wars, Treasure Planet, the Legend of Zelda franchise, Twilight, or anything you recognize from any of those sources or any other form of published media. I do, however, own this story, Aleesha, the settlement of Haven, Jocasta, and anything else you don’t recognize from any form of published media.


End file.
